The United States did not have diplomatic relations with mainland China in the late 1940s after the communist takeover (though theoretically it maintained diplomatic relations through ties with Taiwan). The United States ended diplomatic relations with Vietnam following the Vietnam War in 1975.

In the wake of a tense ASEAN meeting, CFR fellow Joshua Kurlantzick and CSIS senior fellow Bonnie Glaser discuss the rising tensions between China and other Asian countries over the South China Sea and implications for U.S. foreign policy in the region.

Pham Binh Minh, minister of foreign affairs for the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, analyzes Vietnam's relationship with the United States and surrounding nations, and outlines the country's strategy for economic growth.

Vietnam's stock market has plunged and its economic growth has dwindled since 2006, when it was seen as a model for emerging country growth. The country's experience highlights the problems confronting emerging markets in the 2008 financial crisis.

The risk of a military confrontation between China and Vietnam is rising, as both countries vie for influence in Southeast Asia and claim disputed areas of the South China Sea. Joshua Kurlantzick explains how the United States should seek to defuse tensions and help avert a serious crisis.

Robert Dallek, a prominent historian on the American presidency, says that historians will remember President Gerald R. Ford as “a distinctly minor figure,” in part because he was in office for such a short period and “one cannot point to any great initiatives that changed the course of history, in my judgment, in that time.”

Don Oberdorfer, an expert on Asian affairs who wrote a major book on the Tet offensive, Tet!, says even though support for the Iraq war is ebbing in the United States, the current mood lacks “the domestic passion” the Tet Offensive produced against the Vietnam War in 1968.

2015 Annual Report

Learn more about CFR’s mission and its work over the past year in the 2015 Annual Report. The Annual Report spotlights new initiatives, high-profile events, and authoritative scholarship from CFR experts, and includes a message from CFR President Richard N. Haass.Read and download »